Court: Suits can go on despite incorrect names

Defendants can't escape lawsuits simply because the person bringing suit didn't have the legally correct name of the entity, the Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled.

The Phoenix Police Department and Maricopa Medical Center argued that they could not be sued because they are not legal entities. Their attorneys argued that by the time the lawsuit was amended with the proper defendants - the City of Phoenix and the Maricopa County Special Health Care District - it was too late.

But the judges said there was no question that the plaintiff had, in fact, served the lawsuit to the right parties. And they said the defendants weren't harmed by allowing the case to proceed.

This ruling has implications beyond this case.

The judges said the same logic applies when someone is suing a business but, for whatever reason, doesn't include the correct legal name when the lawsuit is filed. They said it is completely permissible for the person who filed the suit to amend the complaint, even after the deadline has passed, to insert the proper legal entity.

This case involves John Simon, who filed suit after a fight with police officers in 2008. His claims were that he was held to the ground and struck with a heavy object, and that he got inadequate medical care at the hospital.

A trial judge agreed to the request of the Phoenix Police Department to dismiss the suit because it is a "non-jural" entity that can neither sue nor be sued.

The judge also threw out the portion of the lawsuit against the hospital.

Appellate Judge Donn Kessler said court rules in Arizona require that certain government entities be sued under their own names. But he said those rules do not specify a remedy when a plaintiff fails to comply.

The judge said, however, that Arizona courts have concluded that the most proper solution is to allow the plaintiff to amend the case rather than have it thrown out.

For example, he cited a case in which someone sued "Holmes Tuttle Broadway Ford" on the day the statute of limitations to file a suit expired. He said there was nothing wrong with the plaintiff amending that to "Holmes Tuttle Broadway Ford Inc."

"Assuming the Phoenix Police Department is a non-jural entity, Simon's naming the police department rather than the City of Phoenix as a defendant in his complaint is a purely technical error that does not warrant dismissal," Kessler wrote for the unanimous court.

He said the city has formed a police department to carry out certain legal duties, like suppressing crime. He said that is the name of the entity given to the public.

Beyond that, Kessler noted the lawsuit was served to a person authorized to accept notices for the city, at the address of a city building.

Kessler said the same is true of the hospital, with the county-run district that operates the hospital holding itself out to the public as Maricopa Medical Center. And the judge said that the person who accepted service on the lawsuit was listed as a clerk for the board of the health-care district, meaning the entity had notice of the claim.

"The parties served legally exist and the misnomer does not prevent the Superior Court from acquiring jurisdiction," the judge wrote.